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Subterranean Specimen Rig

Part 1 Project 2003Daniel RowlandGina DoyleOxford Brookes University, UKLandscape surface is an appearance, not the real nature of land. Substance is the tangible matter of which it consists. The relationship of surface to substance generates material qualities and programmes for the "Examination Rig". The land is a container of fragments, displaced spaces, seasonal flows, splintered topologies, and embedded residues. It is a series of unseen narratives mapped in space and time; to be reassembled once revealed.

"Subterranean Specimen Rig" is a mechanism that reads it's surrounding environment. Facilities assume their position on site subject to tidal fluctuations, delivering a sequence of speculative conditions. The section is not an idealised moment in time, rather a generator of potential configurations. Patination and water are encouraged to invade the laboratories. Nighttime illumination under ground level evokes the architectures of a living organism.

Daniel RowlandGina Doyle

The year was structured as a continuous programme of research, sub divided into series of interconnecting episodes. As architect explorers, students were asked to consider drawings as sites of speculative construction, objects of manufacture, test sites, filters, employing facts and half-truths. Individual architectural positions developed, relationships and scenarios seen as structuring devices for new programmes, were sited in the Lea Valley.

Daniel works carefully and consistently. A highly motivated, articulate, and engaging student. Initial non-site specific work evolved into a direct physical engagement with the earth. A series of displacements and removals, uncovering hidden structures developed into a laboratory structure at the mouth of the river Lea and Bow creek opposite the Millennium dome and Greenwich peninsular. The portfolio demonstrates a mature self assured inventiveness and style unusual at degree level.

Residues, patination and water are encouraged to invade the laboratories

Facility resumes it's position on site subject to tidal fluctuations

Model plan of surface structures - a) Surface is a superficial appearance, not the real nature of the land; b)Substance is the tangible matter of which things consist, material with defined chemical composition

c) Relationship of surface to substance generates material quality and programme for Examination Rig. Splintered circulation leads to research laboratories